This guy is the best hitter in baseball and has been for the past several years. He is a total wizard with the bat. Just look at that pitch from Kansas City Royals starter James Shields that he took out down the left field line in the top of the first on Sunday. The pitch was nearly a foot inside and almost exactly where catcher Salvador Perez wanted it. Cabrera let it get deep enough so he could hit it fair, but he still managed to get around on it and drive it out of the park with power. If you watch the replay, you’ll see that he didn’t even extend his arms into a powerful position. 90 percent of hitters would either take the pitch; get jammed and make an out had they swung; or yank it foul. Not Cabrera. This guy somehow manages to knock it out of the park.

The angle from the TV camera doesn’t truly show how far inside the pitch was, but this FOX Trax image does:

There really aren’t many ways to pitch Cabrera. Maybe you can sneak a slow pitch by him here or there, but good luck getting him out more than three times in a game.